Epic Games: freemium is the future

After Crytek’s ramblings on free-to-play as the future of gaming, another high-profile studio appears to fiercely share the vision. Epic Games, developers of the Gears of War franchise, look at F2P and global launches as the only way to go.

Epic’s Tim Sweeney spoke at GDC Taipei about how $30 million games will invade Asian markets within the next five years or so, but not as retail products; the games are to release as free-to-play products and with a global reach. He added that freemium is going to be the way that almost all games will be distributed worldwide.

Tim Sweeney also predicted the quick death of the current retail model, where “players have to go into the store and buy a piece of plastic.”

Tim Sweeney isn’t just talking nonsense, he has the plans to back it up. Yingpei Games, a.k.a. Epic Games China is developing Mercenary Ops, an anticipated free-to-play third-person shooter that is looking very promising indeed.